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Art Success: Adelaide Damoah in Conversation with Edward Ofosu

I have known Edward Ofosu for a few years now. I was even privileged enough to exhibit with him once in a group show. I can go as far as to boast that he bought one of my paintings once. Ofosu, born in 1973 told me that he knew from as early as eight years old that one day, he was going to be a painter. Having completed his secondary education in the 90’s, in Ghana, Ofosu found himself still longing to paint worked long hours in a poultry farm doing finance, while at the same time studying under the tutelage of a local artist who encouraged his natural talent. In 2009, a portrait Ofosu did of his mother caught the attention of a magazine. This gave him the confidence to continue to pursue his dream while working many different jobs to pay the bills including cleaning, construction and care work. At one stage, things started to close in on him as he lost his job and had visa issues. Eternally optimistic, Ofosu told me that it was at this stage that he realised that all of these things had to happen in order for him to establish himself on his journey to becoming a professional artist. Now he is one of the most prolific artists that I know painting every single day. In his own words,
“Through all of these things, I am on fire now!”
 
Edward Ofosu
 
Adelaide Damoah (AD): Are you continuing to work to support your art?
Edward Ofosu (EO): I once did a portrait for a friend of mine. It was of his wife. He showed the painting to his friend who was the head master of a school in Norwood, London- for kids who have been excluded from other schools. The man asked if I could teach the kids in his school. So for two hours every Tuesday, I teach the kids art. That job has been sustaining me. It has allowed me to buy all of the art materials that I need to continue my practice. Now the energy and the paintings are just getting bigger! I feel like I am home now. Now I feel like I am open to this process to continue forever. I am not going to stand in the way of the process because once I do that, I am killing myself. People always ask me how I am surviving, but somehow, I am surviving and amazing things are beginning to happen.
AD: Apart from working on Tuesday’s, you paint the rest of the time?
EO: I paint every day. Morning and evening.
AD: That’s amazing Edward. I remember us exhibiting together in Ladbrook Grove and I know that since then, you have been involved in a number of group shows. Have you had any solo shows since?
EO: Yes, two solo shows.
AD: Did you sell any work?
EO: The first one, I sold one. The second show, I didn’t sell any, but most of those pieces have been sold now.
The Queen
20×16 inches
oil on canvas
2011
AD: The art world as you know is run by upper middle class white men for the most part. Naturally, this means that they will have their own leanings in terms of what they deem as important to promote. There are very few black artists who have been accepted so to speak by the art establishment. With that in mind, what is your definition of success?
EO: My definition of success is when you are enjoying what you are doing. When the fulfilment of what you are doing is in the future, then you are not successful. The reason is that unless that future comes, you are not going to be fulfilled. Therefore, when your fulfilment is in what you are doing now, then the future, whatever form it takes, does not really make you or break you. In terms of society, if you then become famous, that is a by product. My work will suffer if my fulfilment is in the future. If that is my focus, I can not be totally what I do because my totality is based on my idea of having success that may come tomorrow. If my fulfilment and success is in what I am doing, then I am total. I am fulfilled. This idea of success that we learn from society and from schools for instance, all those things are things of the past! As you learn something, that thing becomes the past. If you want to be accepted by a society who just lives in the past, then you have to be like them to be accepted. If you want mad people to accept you, then you have to be mad! If I look around our society, all that I see is politicians misleading people. Lots of people are running around trying to do jobs and they are frustrated. We see something wrong and we all follow blindly. Even the education system does not allow us to unfold the deeper dimensions within ourselves. All that the education system does is to allow us to swallow lots of information and just vomit it out without even digesting it because if you digest the information properly, you can not vomit out the same information. I remember a few years ago, I did a painting called Brainwash Education. At the time, I knew of may people who were taking examinations. While some people were writing happily, others were stuck and were unable to get the right information out. Why? In my opinion because the system just helps you to be a photocopier. Yet still, within us is everything. Within us is totality. The whole of life is within us. What I mean by that is that my body can become sick and break down. The same body can be completely healthy and fit. The whole of life exists in every person, so if that totality is not being expressed, then that human being is effectively half of himself. This is why there is so much stress and stress related illnesses. People are looking for something to make them feel whole. These are the things that no body will tell you. They would rather condition you to think in a certain way. With children, it starts young, by the time they are six, they have already been programmed to be a certain way. Some kids have talent and think in a different way, and as a result, get told they are disrespectful or are dismissed from school. These are some of the children that I teach. They have something, they have passion and they are unique. Every body is unique. If you want to put everybody in the same box, it can not work. There is a lack of freedom to express our uniqueness.
AD: By your definition of success, do you consider yourself to be successful?
EO: By my definition, I consider myself to be successful because of where I am. I am doing my work and I am enjoying it. I am totally in the work. I don’t even consider myself to be a person! I consider myself to be like a bamboo tree. Or, like a flute! You know, once you surrender to this life, life takes care of itself. It knows what to do with the apple tree, it knows what to do with the banana plant, it knows what to do with the elephant. It is only humans who try to find out what to do with themselves. Once you surrender to life, somehow, life is much more sophisticated than you! Life can take care of you. Those who surrender to life, become life, become the totality. The totality begins to shine through that person. For me, because I have surrendered to the process, I consider myself successful. If I were not to surrender, I would be a struggling artist, even if the world made me famous and gave me lots of money. Why? Because my art would not be authentic, it would not have that power of the whole. It would just be empty from my point of view. It would be without a soul. When you are total, then you know that you are successful.

David Lammy
24×20 inches
oil on canvas
2012

 

AD: Good answer Edward… Going back to what I was saying about the art world being run by the upper middle classes and us as minorities having difficulties in penetrating that world, is that something that concerns you in your practice?
EO: In the past I saw that. We would talk about art and galleries in London and potential spaces for African artists. But now, I realise that nothing can stop light from shining. I remember one day, I walked past this pond. There were about 20 small trees in the middle of this pond. Then the sun started shining and all of a sudden, all the trees had light on them. You see, light can not be stopped.So when you are shining your light, no one can stop your light from shining. That is why Van Gogh is still considered great today. Even though society may not have given him all of the awards and fame. When you shine a light, it will have an effect on anything that it comes into contact with. Therefore, the idea that someone is stopping you from shining, is the idea that stops you from shining!When you know that everything is within you, then you know that you are the limit of yourself! Whatever you see, is the reality. If you know that you are limitless, then you will rather surrender to the process than go in whatever direction. It might be that you produce some work that helps six people to heal, or it could be channelled toward something else. It does not have to be through galleries. You can share you work with people and they will be uplifted. In that way, your work could still transform the life of some people while ignoring the media. Nothing can stop the light from shining. Darkness exists but when the light shines, it disappears.
AD: What is your ultimate dream for your art?
EO: My ultimate dream is to use my work as a catalyst to help people to get in touch with themselves. When you are not in touch with yourself, you can not be yourself! When you are in touch with yourself, you be yourself and that is where you find fulfilment. I want to use my work to challenge people, to bring out messages and words. I want to make provoking statements through my work that will make people ask questions that will make people find out that they are not who they say they are! For instance, we all have this idea that we are this or that. Are you really that? Because it is the information that makes you what you are. What is it that makes you Adelaide? Your mum could have called you Joanna or Lucy or Mary! Let us check out whether we are this information. If you are the information, then what is it that is within you that is aware of the information? Your age, your country, your date of birth… What is it in you that is aware of the information? Where you not there before the name Adelaide came to your memory?
AD: Now we are getting into the realm of philosophy and the sense of self called qualia!
EO: Well, that is what I am trying to do through my work, to make people get in touch with themselves. Come back home and define something that they can define for themselves.
Chipo
20 x 16 inches
oil on canvas
2012

 

AD: How do you think this can manifest through your work? Do you think it is possible for that to happen through people looking at paintings?
EO: The first awareness came to me in 2010 when I did my first solo show. I did it in a church. A woman came to the exhibition with her children. The woman came to me and told me that she looked at one of my paintings and something hit her really hard and she was taken aback. She was expressing a feeling that she had when she looked at the painting. When she said that, I realised that it was possible to use the work as a trigger of transformation. Therefore, if I become this transformation, then whatever I touch is being transformed. If I am sick, whatever I do will be full of sickness. If I am empowered, if I am aware, then whatever I touch will be a reflection of that state of being that I already am. The more I experience, the more I can transform through my work. When people look at my work and say wow, you paint from the soul, that is because there is a soul there. You can’t say you see a soul when there is nothing but emptiness. Some of the titles can get people thinking as well. I think I have about five paintings with the title “Who am I?” I have a title about religion which says something like “It is that block called religion that stops you from becoming religious.” Once you become something, then you are nothing. But once you are nothing… For instance, once you are a Christian, automatically, you become against Muslims. Automatically, you have to be against the others because you are this thing. If I am nothing, then I can not be against anyone.
What advice would you give to a young man who wanted to follow in your footsteps?
EO: My advice would be that everything is inside you. Call forth that which you want to call forth from within because it is all there. There is a choice to depend upon yourself or to depend upon that which is everything. When you are depending on yourself, then you lose touch with everything. When you lose yourself and surrender to that everything which is within you, then you have got everything and you become everything. Then, you have the whole. When you become you, then you block yourself experiencing everything. Then you become this individual trying to survive, you meet with frustration when people don’t buy your work. When you lose yourself in everything, you are so fulfilled and there is this fire burning inside. At that point, the fulfilment can not be put into words. It will be shown through the words that you speak, your actions and the work that you produce. People will be touched in so many ways. The person who is there, becomes the block to experience the all and the person who surrenders to himself disappears, but then he experiences the all. Don’t think “how am I going to survive.” How can you know how when you do not know tomorrow? That is a fact. Don’t pretend that you know, just accept the fact that you do not know, because you can never know. Because you don’ know, you just have to trust and keep believing in what you have and that trust will begin to take care of you. Maybe in the next 20 years, you will have some good money coming into your account. Maybe it will never happen. When you are really putting your totality in and you know you are on a mission, you know you are fulfilling it and you are complete. Then, even in 1000 years, after you are dead and gone, your work could still be touching people, just like Bob Marley’s music still uplifts people every day even though he has been gone for so many years. The person who looks away from his soul and tries to fulfil himself with other things will never be fulfilled because those things will always leave you empty in the end.
Charlotte
20×24 inches
oil on canvas
2009

 

 Keep up to date with Edward’s work here: http://www.edwardofosu.com/
An abridged version of this interview will be published in the May edition of Lime Magazine online and in hard copy with thanks to editor Vernia Mengot.
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Art Success: Adelaide Damoah in Conversation with Shiri Achu

Beauty, confidence, exuberance, intelligence and tenacity. These are just a few adjectives I would use to describe this talented artist. Born in the Cameroon, West Africa, Achu came to the Uk at the age of nine. An inquisitive and creative child, Achu used found materials to start to make art. Gaining A grades at both GCSE and A level art, Achu decided not to follow the path of art education that her mother wanted for her and went on to study and qualify in architecture. Achu went on to work in the field of architecture until the economy collapsed in 2008 when she was made redundant. Just before that time, Achu had been considering what to do because of the fact that her husband lived in the United States. Achu’s first exhibition entitled the “30th Act,” took place in April of 2009, coinciding with her 30th birthday. Achu’s exhibitions and exposure have been spiraling ever since.
Shiri Achu. Photo by Suki Mok
Having only been active for three years, Achu has achieved rather a lot. With more than 20 exhibitions under her belt, I was very interested to find out about her views regarding success in the art world, specifically from the perspective of a black female artist trying to gain recognition from a patriarchal predominantly white, middle class establishment.
Adelaide Damoah (AD): Are you doing art full time?
Shiri Achu (SA): Yes, but I also have private architecture work. I have private architecture contacts that I am working on in Ghana and Cameroon.
AD: Excellent! Are you planning on pursuing the two career paths simultaneously?
SA: Yes. I aim never to sleep! The thing is, I have always wanted to be both an artist and an architect. Right now, the ratio is roughly 70 per cent art and 30 per cent architecture.
AD: From what I have seen, you have managed to be involved in a large number of exhibitions in the three years since you started out as an artist. Are any of those shows that you have organised yourself?
SA: Yes, I have done three solo shows. I organised two myself and was sponsored for the exhibition in Cameroon.
Masai Tone (20090. Acrylic on canvas board.
AD: Did you manage to sell any work at those shows?
 
SA: I did. The first show I sold about 13. That was my forst show, I was so excited! The second one in Cameroon, I sold about four. The last show I had at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill, I sold about 13 prints. All of those figures were for opening nights.
AD: Wow, that is really very impressive! Does the concept of money and sales come into your definition of what it means to be a successful artist?
SA: Not necessarily. For me, it is more about people recognising my work. Let me give you an example, a friend of mine who lives in Australia has recently become my representative over there. Once she told me that she mentioned my work to somebody and they knew who I was. I said, “What?” I was in shock! I did not realise my work had affected people as far afield as Australia. That was really cool. I think it is about more people recognising my work and what I am doing. It is about people seeing that what I am doing is important. Of course, the money comes with it but I have never really been a money person, otherwise I would never have done architecture. I am all about making a difference somehow with beautiful buildings or through the art, educating people about Africa in my own way. One of the reasons why I paint what I paint is because I want to bring African culture to the Western world and educate about our culture. I like the fact that people can, having seen a visual, know a little bit about African culture. For me, that is more success than just having money. But of course, money is important, which is one of the reasons why I introduced prints of my work. With prints, your work can be taken world wide very easily. If someone calls me from Singapore asking for a print, I send a print.
Distant Butterfly (2009). Acrlic on canvas board
AD: Are you concerned with gaining recognition from and being accepted by the patriarchal world that is the art establishment or are you more concerned with creating your own market?
SA: I am about creating my own market, although, it would be easier if the people within the establishment were open to help. Saying that, I am not afraid of creating my own market and I am working very hard to make it succeed.
AD: Going back to your definition of what it means to be successful in art, do you consider yourself to be successful at this point in time?
SA: Not yet. I was asked this question in another interview just a week ago. This is my third interview in about a week and a half! So, it probably looks like I am quite successful because of things like that. In any case, that question came up, but the interviewer put it in a different way. She said, “When was your big break?” My response was, I have not had a big break yet. I still think I am getting there because I am lucky enough to have had exhibitions in places where people buy my work, but I don’t think I am there yet. I am not happy with where I am at the moment.
Midnight Tradition. Acrylic on Canvas
AD: Well that is good because that is what will provide the friction required to drive you to keep moving forward.
SA: Exactly, yes.
AD: We have established that the art world is a patriarchal one. Looking at “successful” black female artists who have been validated by the establishment, think Wangechi Mutu, Rene Cox and Sonia Boyce, what in your opinion does it take for a black female artist to be accepted and validated as successful within the art establishment? There are not very many black female artists recognised by the art establishment even though there are very many black female artists currently working.
SA: I know that Wangechi Mutu’s work has a good message. (Wangechi Mutu observes: “Females carry the marks, language and nuances of their culture more than the male. Anything that is desired or despised is always placed on the female body.”) It is a little bit controversial, it is unique and because of her style, you do not automatically assign it to the African market. I think those things may contribute to her success. Her message is unique, it is a little bit different and I have not personally experienced that kind of thing, not until I saw her work. As for the latter part of your question, it is difficult to answer because if they aren’t, then they aren’t. For me it is all about the message that they portray, why they do what they do.
AD: Yes, I think that the element of controversy seems to be important as well. It seems to be a common thread. For female artists specifically- not just black female artists, if you think of Tracey Emin, as soon as she made that bed, all of a sudden, she was news worthy and that is in part what made her name.
SA: Exactly. A few days ago, I was showing some work in London. Some really powerful art critics were there and they decided to critique one particular painting. This particular piece, I have shown once before at the Commonwealth Secretariat when I was invited to exhibit there last year. The piece is called Rose and everyone who has seen that painting loves it, which is of course why I chose to exhibit it. I have had people pre order prints of that painting prior to me even announcing that there would be prints available! I have had people commission me to do other paintings based on the exact same concept, from that painting! I had some amazing and encouraging comments and some not so good comments. The painting was of a strong black woman, a heroine. The woman is pregnant. One of the critics said he loved the concept, another one did not like the concept but loved the expression in the face of the woman. The overall impression that I got was one of confusion. One said, “you are trying to portray an African heroine?” I said yes! There were more than one of this art establishment critics critiquing and examining my work. Although the majority of them had overwhelmingly positive responses, they all rejected my work and moved on to the next. I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to have my work critiqued by these very powerful art people and at the end of the day, who am I to argue with them? But the whole experience did say a lot to me. For me, I felt like they just could not relate to the work.
AD: Wow! Maybe they had little to no understanding of the African Aesthetic?
SA: Yes!
AD: This also perfectly illustrates what we were just talking about with regards to the art establishment accepting and validating the work of black female artists. What I find interesting is that when it comes to the art establishment accepting or not accepting certain groups of people, when enough people are doing that thing, or joining the movement and becoming successful within their own market, the art establishment suddenly sits up and takes note! Then you will be hearing people in the upper echelons saying, “Darrrrrling! This is the next big thing! Fabulous darling!” So keep doing what you are doing and that is exactly what will happen!
SA: (Laughing) Exactly! Well I want to do a major exhibition with about thirty variations of the Rose painting. I have already started and they are all quite big. I think it would be really cool.
AD: Is this an exhibition that you are organising yourself?
SA: Yes, this is for my next collection. So that piece that the critics were critiquing was the first from that series for the exhibition.
AD: What would you say is your ultimate dream for your art?
SA: I would love to have a mega exhibition. Not right away because I don’t think I am ready. Maybe in about ten years. A major retrospective showing my growth over the years. I would like for people to know me! From all the musicians, you know, so that they have a piece of Shiri Achu art in their house! Is it fame? I don’t want to walk down the street and be recognised so maybe not. You see, my art, when I do it, as much as it is to educate, is for the people here who have never been to Africa to think that after seeing my work, they would love to go and see Africa. I also want them to see Africa in a different light. I would like to make a small impact like that.
Ma Africa Pounds. Acrylic on hardboard.
AD: I think you will! It has already started! You mentioned musicians, it only takes for one major celebrity to endorse your work for their friends and everybody else to take notice and asking them, “Where did you get that fabulous piece?”
SA: Well Faith Evans bought one of my paintings and nothing really came out of that.
AD: Yes. Maybe if you got someone like David Beckham to buy a piece?
SA: The thing is, I would not be impressed by David Beckham buying a piece for the sake of it. I would rather he bought it because he appreciates it rather than just because he thought to himself, “Shiri Achu work is supposed to be cool, I have got some money, let me just buy one.” I want people who are going to appreciate my work to own my work.
AD: This is part of the issue that a lot of artists face. When you start getting big and your work has a real market value, people start buying your work as an investment rather than because they love it. Next thing you know, the person that bought your work saying that they would cherish it forever goes and puts it up for auction!
SA: I have friends who have my work whom I have specifically told not to ever sell it. If they ever did, I would be really upset! I have told them all! It is meant to be for the person who bought it, it is meant to have value for them, so why whould they then turn around and use it as some sort of money tool? I don’t like that.
AD: But if you continue on this trajectory, it is almost inevitable that it will happen. Not necessarily someone that you know, but someone, somewhere could end up placing your work in an auction.
SA: That is fine, but if it was someone close to me, then I think that I would be hurt.
AD: I was reading something today about an artist who discovered for the first time that one of his paintings had been put up for auction. Not by somebody that he knew but by someone who had once bbought a piece at an exhibition. He said he felt hurt by it even though it is in a lot of ways a marker of success for many artists.
SA: It is a way of knowing that you are getting there isn’t it. It is a great signal to show when you are actually there. Or getting there.
AD: Exactly. Because that is a very tangible demonstration that a market for your work exists.
SA: Exactly. I agree.
Along 2 (2010). Acrylic on Canvas Board
AD: Imagine a young female comes to you and says that she wants to follow your path, in your footsteps and pursue her ultimate dream which is basically the same as yours. What advice would you give to her?
SA: If it is painting, whatever it is, make that work recognisable. Create a niche for yourself. Also, you have to have a passion for it. I find that if you do not have the passion, you can not do anything. I can stay up all night working because I love everything that I am doing. I love being an artist, I love being an architect. Because of my passion, I work very hard at it, because I don’t find it a chore. I don’t feel that it is work. If you are going to be a painter, I think you should find a subject matter, find what you love to paint and you paint. You have to find marketable tools. It took me a long time before I started selling prints because I was intent on just selling the originals. One day, two years ago, just as I was doing my first exhibition, I was sitting down with my girlfriends and they advised me to produce prints. At the time I said, “No way! Art is a one off piece.” They told me off! They said, “What are you talking about, that is how you will make money!” I told them not to worry about it and insisted everything would be fine. Anyway, I had the exhibition and a few small paintings were sold. I had a guest book out and people were signing the book and writing their comments. I had so many comments about particular pieces stating that they really liked them but just could not afford them. I then decided to make the prints! I started off printing onto canvas and people were still not able to afford them so I then went to fine art prints on paper. It has been a learning curve but now I make signed limited prints on paper and they still hold a certain value because they are limited edition. You see, so I learned my market. You have to know your market and understand what sells. Put yourself out there. As much as people invite me to exhibit at amazing places like the Commonwealth Secretariat or the Houses of Parliament, I really put myself out there. For Black History month, I called around asking what was going on because I wanted to exhibit somewhere. That is how I came to exhibit at Black History Live in Wembley Stadium. I paid £200 of my own money to have an exhibition stand there. I sold a few, maybe six in that weekend. But it was not about the sales. The contacts that I got were worth so much more. That is how I met the lady who invited me to exhibit at the Commonwealth Secretariat and I got paid double what I had paid to do the Wembley exhibit. You can see that it is all about putting yourself out there, looking for the opportunities and enjoying it while never letting it go to your head because people will not like you! It is so much better to remain yourself rather than thinking that you are better than anybody. If you are about educating and showing people Africa and you are reaching those goals, then you should just be happy for it because you are doing what you set out to do.
Follow Shiri Achu’s work.
An abridged version of this interview will be published in the April edition of Lime Magazine with thanks to Vernia Mengot, new editor.
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Studio Damoah

Dear Daddy

Peanut. NCDV series 2009. Oil on canvas. 6 ft by 4ft. The poem below is written on the painting.


Dear Daddy,
I love my mummy, she protects me in her tummy
Makes me feel warm and safe
My mummy talks and sings to me
Feeds me to make sure I am no waif
My mummy strokes her belly and tells me that I’m loved, I am her special one
She says she can’t wait to meet me, -her one and only son
I love my mummy so I can’t wait to see her happy smiling face
The thought makes me excited, to leave my comfy space
Sometimes, I give her a gentle kick, just to let her to know I am here
She laughs, rubs her belly more and says, “the time is near”
I want daddy to love my mummy too
But sometimes Daddy, I don’t think you do…
You told my mummy she was fat and ugly. You called my mummy a slag
You said, that she would be, better in a body bag
I heard you say fat fucking whale, Daddy what does that mean?
Why did that make her cry?
Why were you shouting at her,
You scare my mummy and you scared me too
Why don’t you love my mummy any more?
When you shout at her, she cries
Last time she cried so hard that my whole world shook
I heard her and it shook for ages
And so I cried too
As long as mummy cried, I cried
Then I just felt sick
Why don’t you love my mummy?
Daddy, you screamed to mummy, that I was another man’s
Do I have another daddy?
Why did that break her heart daddy? I know I felt it break.
She cried and cried the longest time and I felt wobbly and sick
I cried too the whole time mummy cried the whole night through
I felt mummies heart beat really fast, it made mine beat fast too.
Quiet now, so quiet… I am sorry baby, you know I love you.. I didn’t mean to say
those things, but you just get to me sometimes…
Quiet mummy.
Crying mummy, quiet, crying mummy…
Gosh you are getting so fat, stop eating before you fucking explode
Mummy has not feed me for ages.
Feel sick all the time, so weak daddy. So weak, can’t kick any more
I love you baby, I’m sorry, your not really fat, here eat something…
Quiet, so quiet………
“If you don’t do as I say I will fucking kick that brat out of you”
“I will break your fucking back and you know I mean it, now bend over you ugly bitch. Lie still”
Mummy screaming “noooooo please, no not that”…
Sobbing
Screaming and crying
Bumps and thuds. Bump bump bump bang bang bang wallop
Pressure in here daddy, cramped and squashed she cant breathe
Gurgling sound from my mummy
I – can’t breathe
I feel sick daddy, my head feels funny
Bang a hard bash on my head
Screaming mummy………….It hurts really badly now
Whack, bump bump bang bang wallop
Smack smack smack
It’s cramped in here so cramped
Loud grunting daddy
Quiet mummy
Hurts
Red stuff in here. She can’t breathe
I can’t breathe
Bump bump bump daddy. Bang bang crash
Stupid fat bitch. “Take it you fucking fat whore”
Pain, so much pain daddy, feel weak. So weak
Daddy, please stop the bumping
Red stuff, so much red stuff in my comfy mummy space
“You should have aborted that fucking baby like I told you to you stupid whore”
Red stuff. Please stop. Please stop. Please…..stop… weak… cramped. She can’t
Breathe
Quiet now, so quiet
Daddy please stop
I – don’t – want- to- to-to-to………….die….
Peanut


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Studio Damoah

My Favourite Women in Art

Awe Inspiring Female Artists
We live in a patriarchal society, that is a fact. That the art world is a man’s world is also a fact. However, since the 60’s, corresponding with the so called second rise of the feminist movement, the Feminist art movement has brought more visibility to women within art history and art practice. The effects of the Feminist art movement can still be felt today with female artists who empower themselves by unapologetically visually representing the female experience through their work. Here are three of my favourite female artists of all time.
Renee Cox
Renee Cox, a Jamaican American mixed media artist is described in her biography as one of the most “controversial African-American artists working today.” Born in 1960 in Jamaica, Cox uses her own body to critique what she sees as an inherently sexist and racist society while simultaneously celebrating what it means to be a black woman. Unafraid to confront sexist and racist stereotypes, Cox for me embodies everything that I would like to be in her confrontational social commentary. One of her most controversial series of works to date entitled “Flipping the Script,” involved Cox’s reinterpretations of religious art with contemporary black figures. The most controversial of the photographs in a series entitled “Yo Mama’s Last Supper” was shown at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 2001. Cox reinterpreted Da Vinci’s Last Supper as a photograph of a nude Cox as Jesus Christ in the centre, with black disciples all around her, apart from Judas, who was depicted as a white man. When New York Mayor Rude Guiliani called for such works “not to be shown in a museum that regularly received public funding”, her response was as follows:
“I have the right to reinterpret the Last Supper as Leonardo Da Vinci created the Last Supper with people who look like him. The hoopla and the fury are because I am a black woman. It’s about me having nothing to hide.” (From www.reneecox.org)
Challenging inspirational and unreservedly unapologetic. Love her.
Renee Cox. Your Mamma’s Last Supper 1996. Copyright Renee Cox.
Nancy Spero (1926-2009)
Nancy Spero was an American visual artist and activist whose career lasted for 50 years. According to the Michigan Chapter of the Women’s Caucus for Art’s Official Blog, when discussing the sexism evident in the art world, Spero once said,
“I’ve always sought to express a tension in form and meaning in order to achieve a veracity. I have come to the conclusion that the art world has to join us, women artists, not we join it. When women are in leadership roles and gain rewards and recognition, then perhaps ‘we’ (women and men) can all work together in art world actions.”
The PBS series Art21 (Art in the 21st Century) website describes Spero’s work as follows:
“… an unapologetic statement against the pervasive abuse of power, Western privilege, and male dominance.”

Nancy Spero. Segment of -Torture of Women 1976.

Spero’s work was mostly executed on paper and in large public installations world wide. Using women as protagonists, Spero’s work focused on reinforcing her principles of equality and tolerance by drawing on historical events as well as contemporary news for inspiration including the extermination of Jews in the Holocaust, the torture of women in Nicaragua and the atrocities of the Vietnam war. Embarrassingly for me, I only became aware of Nancy Spero some time in 2004 when I was making the decision to become an artist. My research lead me to two of her most memorable works for me personally, Torture in Chile (1974) and the long scroll, Torture of Women (1976, 20 inches x 125 feet). Both depicted the horror and brutality inflicted on women using real oral accounts of torture taken from Amnesty International reports- the works represented previously invisible histories of real women and wove them with real events happening at that time. Spero died of heart Failure in 2009 at the age of 83.
Nancy_Spero. Segment of Torture of women 1976
Wangechi Mutu
Born in 1972 in Kenya, Wangechi Mutu is a new favourite artist of mine. Mutu currently lives and works in New York. In her bio published on the Saatchi Gallery website, Mutu observes,
“Females carry the marks, language and nuances of their culture more than the male. Anything that is desired or despised is always placed on the female body.”
I couldn’t agree with her more. Mutu intuitively expresses this opinion by piecing together painted surfaces with contemporary magazine images and found objects to create beautiful and intricate works which reference fashion, African politics cultural history and colonial identity. Essence magazines feature “10 Female Artists You Should Know About,” referred to her work as work which explores female sexuality and the myths surrounding African women as “wild and exotic.” Time Out New York described her work as “Divine and Decadent.”

Wangechi Mutu untitled. 2003

The piece that speaks the most to me by far is “Complete Prolapsus of the Uterus” 2004- Glitter, ink collage on found medical illustration paper…
wangechi mutu complete prolapsus of the uterus. 2004. Glitter Ink collage on found medical illustration paper. copyright wangechi mutu
Here, I have presented scant details of just three awe inspiring female artists who influence me personally. There are thousands of female artists making relevant (but unrecognised) contributions to art history through their work. I sincerely hope that one day, preferably during my life time, I wake up to find that the art world has morphed into something for talented artists of all backgrounds and races, that truly represents what Nancy Spero imagined when she said,
“When women are in leadership roles and gain rewards and recognition, then perhaps ‘we’ (women and men) can all work together in art world actions.”

Thank you Sophia Jackson! This article will be published in the March Goddess edition of Lime Magazine. http://www.comelime.com/
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Studio Damoah

Love in Art. A personal Perspective.

Love is… Love, such a simple word, yet a word which has so many different connotations for different people. A word that has fascinated humans for a millennia and inspired so much beautiful art all over the world.
Love, passion, desire, lust, longing. Before I even understood what those things were, Frida Kahlo taught me how one could use art to externalise them, to express them in a visual way. I remember studying her work at GCSE level, at about the age of 15. I was fascinated and astounded by her ability to punctuate all of her life experiences, the painful and the joyful in such a beautiful way through her work. She was a woman of great passion with many lovers, both male and female, but the one person who always showed up in her work was the great love of her life, Diego Rivera. She was his “chicuita” (little one) and he was her frog prince. Their turbulent yet deeply affectionate and passionate relationship influenced a lot of her work. For me, some of her best pieces are those which are about him or their relationship in some way. Those pieces speak deeply about their relationship which was so much a part of her life and her being.
Diego and I – 1949 Frida Kahlo
Consciously or unconsciously, Kahlo’s way of depicting that love has had a profound effect on the way in which I chose to depict or express my own feelings about my personal relationships. 
Frida Kahlo Diego on My Mind. Self portrait as Tehuana. 1943
During my first relationship, in my late teens, my boyfriend asked me what it felt like to be in love with him. We thought we were deeply in love you see! Mainly because my father was not a fan of the idea of his daughter entering into a relationship, but that is another story. Forbidden love, always inspires such exaggerated intense emotions. We thought we were a modern day Romeo and Juliet, well at least I did! We would meet in secret, but my dad always found out. Oh the drama! It is funny when I think back on it now, but at the same time, what I came up with astounded him and me, as I did not realise my imagination could produce what it did. I made a painting of my own stomach. Looking at the painting, it was as if my own hands were opening up my belly to reveal a head with two laughing mouths and wings for ears about to fly out of the belly which was heaving with the fire of our passion! There were two humans facing each other, joined at the head, arms and feet representing myself and my forbidden lover. I still have the painting. My description of it probably sounds ghastly to some, but he loved it and he kept it until we broke up, when he kindly gave it back to me. Fast forward to the first real love I experienced as an adult and every significant relationship I have had since then, has been punctuated by some piece of art work. This was not something I consciously made an effort to do. If someone moved me to the point where I felt passionate love for them, I was always moved to draw, to paint, it was almost a compulsion. It was as if I had to. Not always something abstract, like the first one, but always something which represented how I felt about them.
Love. 2005. Adelaide Damoah. Abstract series
Love drove me to produce the majority of the works in my abstract series of works. Obsessive love, rejection, pain and passion inspired me to produce the dark Black Lipstick series.
Danad. 2008. Abstract series

Black Lipstick number 5. 2008. Adelaide Damoah
Love, one of the most powerful, mystical and puzzling of all human emotions, can drive people to acts of compassion and selflessness when reciprocated, but when lost, or unrequited, can drive seemingly insane acts of obsession and completely reckless behaviour. It is amazing to me that when channelled, this same emotion can inspire some of the most beautiful art known to man kind.
Thanks to Sophia from Lime magazine. This piece will be published in the February Love edition on sale February 2012.

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